Lesotho hoists new 'peace' flag
2006-10-04 19:44
Maseru - The southern African kingdom of Lesotho marked its 40th anniversary of independence from Britain on Wednesday by unfurling a new peace flag with calls to turn the page on political unrest.
King Letsie III led the celebrations at a stadium in Maseru where about 25 000 compatriots and foreign dignitaries such as Botswana President Festus Mogae and Zambia's founding president Kenneth Kaunda watched the new flag being hoisted.
The new flag has three colours: blue for rain, white symbolising peace and green indicating prosperity.
It is also inscribed with a cone-shaped hat worn by the country's indigenous Basotho people.
It replaces one designed by a military government after a 1986 coup, which sports the same colours, but has martial undertones as it portrays a shield, a knobkerrie and spears.
"We had 20 years of undemocratic rule from 1970 to 1986 and we also experienced political crisis after the general elections of 1998," said King Letsie.
70 people die each day
"We should always strive for dialogue to prevent any conflict that may arise out of our political differences," he said to cheers from the crowd.
The stadium was ablaze with colour with most of the crowd wearing traditional blankets in bright colours.
Lesotho has been wracked by acute poverty, with a per capita GDP of 402 dollars. About 29% of the adult population is HIV positive and the country has more than 100 000 orphans, most of whom lost their parents to Aids.
Aids kills nearly 70 people each day in the country of 1.8 million.
Lesotho's textiles industry accounts for nearly 20% of its GDP and nearly half of its formally employed workforce.
Nearly all its textiles are exported with 90% or more going to the US market in 2004.
King Letsie on Wednesday stressed the need to diversify the economy and end its traditional dependence on textiles and instead build up tourism and mining.
The independence day celebrations coincided with a 603 carat diamond mined in Lesotho going up for sale in Belgium.
It is the world's 15th biggest diamond and the largest discovered in this century.